Bare Bear | Off Color Brewing

Notes / Commercial Description:
A long time ago in Finland, a bunch of Finnish dudes built a sauna. It was nicer in there than it was outside, so they stayed in there until they ran out of beer. When they ran out of beer they still didn't want to go outside so they decided it would be better if they just started brewing their beer in the sauna. And so began the tradition of brewing this traditional Finnish beer in saunas. Chock full of rye and juniper and spicy yeast esters, our sahti might inspire you to build your own sauna to ride out this winter.

This is my first Sahti, and this also makes beer style #100 for me. Fuck yeah! Poured from a brown 12 oz. bottle. Has a chestnut color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is bready, some juniper. Taste is juniper, malts, cherries, a bit on the sweet side. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is a decent beer, although not something I would drink regularly.

Pours a dark brown, pretty clear. Fizzy cola like head dissipates quickly leaving no residual head or lacing. Lots of fizzy cola like bubble continue to bubble upwards from the beer.

Smell is bready with some spicy rye notes, some fruity esters, pine and juniper, and roasted nuts.

Taste follows the nose with a spicy rye bread malt up front giving way to some pin and juniper flavors. Notes of nuts, strong yeast with fruity esters, and spice - nutmeg, cinnamon and clove on the back end. This would make an amazing fall beer.

Feel is very full bodied - thick bready backbone comes through in the feel. Mild carbonation. Spicy rye finish on the back end.

Overall this is a unique but well crafted beer. Rich, deep, and warming. Ill definitely revisit this one this fall.

This was poured into a mug. The appearance was a dark hazy brown color with a slim level foamy white head maintained a nice retention and left some sliding stringy lacing. The smell had sweet bready malt up front and then bleeding into light rye spice, sweet cherries, sweet juniper, molasses, honey and some light caramel. The taste was mainly malty sweet with a sticky sweet herbal quality. A slight sticky aftertaste leads into the same sort of finish. On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body. Carbonation runs fairly low. Sweetness seems to hit right on my tongue. Overall, its a good sahti, I’d probably have it again.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a medium to dark coppery amber with very little carbonation on the pour, but a light off-white ring around the glass with little lacing. Aroma of slightly sweet caramel and biscuit malt, root spices, banana and slight rye. Flavor is sweet bready and caramel malt, earthy spices, rye; with the rye asserting itself into a thinner, spicier almost medicinal taste, then settling in for a spicy finish with light rye tartness, residual caramel and hints of nuts. Medium bodied with some light creaminess at first, but thinner in the finish. An interesting spiced ale. I'm not really getting puer juniper flavors, althought it must be the major contributor to the medicinal flavor in the middle and perhaps the rooty, earthy spicing throughout. Quite different than the Scandinavian or Dogfish Head's sahtis I've tasted, but equally flavorful and interesting. I really like the start and finish, but a little more malt support for the spicy, somewhat stark middle would be better. Still really liked this. The spicing is well done and the malt is interesting. It is odd that there are not much clear juniper notes, considering how bright those flavors are in the native plant. I like what Off Color has been doing. Good job.

It pours dark amber and somewhat hazy. Only a small head and with a retention of a few seconds. Lots of caramel and dark fruit on the nose. Some banana and clove. Also juniper berries and caramelized sugars. It tastes very similar. Not much bitterness. Sweetish in fact. Thin body. A very unique beer.

A: [4.00] The bottle lists the ABV (7.0%). There is a smudged off date code but it includes 2017 - so I am calling this fresh. Brown with ruby highlights. Has 1 finger of off white head with medium bubbles. The color is kind of intriguing.

O: [3.50] This is really unique. The smells and the carbnation are making it so hard to settle on if I like it or not. I keep retrying it. It almost has the taste and feel of a malt beverage (wine cooler) with the fruity notes and carbonation. I probably won't get this again - but I will try something else from this brewery - they aren't afraid to mix it up and innovate.

I picked this up at my local liquor store here in the burbs since my parents were coming into town and I wanted something local and interesting for my Dad and I to try out together. This once caught my eye as being a bit off the wall for American styles and the local craft scene, plus I've heard of Sahtis and have been dying to try one for some time now.

This beer pours a dark amber hue that is a bit hazy resulting in not being able to see through it all the way. Carbonation is quite high and the head is a thick froth (off white in color) that dissipates incredibly slowly after climbing very rapidly. 4/5 The aroma is of moderate strength and leans toward the bitter end of the spectrum but is still nicely balanced. Malt aromas of raw grain, wheat bread, roasted nuts, and caramel come through quite nicely along with an earthy and herbal hop profile. The aroma as brings out a bit of peat and rye spiciness, especially as the beer warms. 3.75/5 The flavor is fairly strong with a slight lean towards bitter as opposed to sweet. The malt profile starts things off with rye and wheat breads, light sweet caramel, and roasted nuts. There is a slightly sweet berry flavor that comes through although this quickly transitions into earthy and herbal hops along with juniper berries that lend a resiny flavor to the beer, mainly on the back end. The finish is fairly short and moderate in strength with a balance of sweetness of the malt and bitterness from the hops and juniper. Bitterness is low to moderate in strength. 3.25/5 This is a medium bodied beer that has lively carbonation and creates both a mouth coating and prickly sensation on the tongue, depending on the area of the tongue. The mouthfeel disappears quite quickly after swallowing. 3.5/5 This is an incredibly interesting beer, although the rye just doesn't do it for me regardless of whether that is true to style or not (in this case, I'm not sure whether it is or not due to my inexperience with this style). It was definitely a fun beer to dissect with my Dad at the very least. 3.5/5